Yahoo Lifestyle ‘Gomorrah’ Prequel Sets Production for 2025 as Sky Celebrates 10th Anniversary of Italy’s Top TV Export — Watch Clip (EXCLUSIVE)
Plans for a “Gomorrah” series prequel are moving forward, with shooting now scheduled to start in winter 2025 on the hit crime drama’s previously announced origin story.
News that the “Gomorrah” prequel show is firmly on track surfaced as Sky Italia celebrated the 10th anniversary of the country’s top TV export, with a special aired on Sunday – of which Variety has been given an exclusive clip – in which key cast traded anecdotes about how their onscreen roles wound up seeping into their real lives.
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The “Gomorrah” origin story will recount the rise of mobster Pietro Savastano in the 1970s, when the Neapolitan criminal underworld was pervasive but less cutthroat — more tied to selling contraband cigarettes than large amounts of drugs — as the show’s lead producer Riccardo Tozzi, chief of ITV-owned Cattleya, revealed. Roberto Saviano, who generated the “Gomorrah” IP, is on board. Other details are being kept under wraps.
“Gomorrah,” which is based on Saviano’s bestselling Neapolitan mob exposé, launched in 2014. From the outset, the gritty show brought audiences inside the belly of the real Neapolitan criminal underworld, thanks in part to being shot almost entirely in the actual places it portrays. Besides attaining megahit status in Italy, “Gomorrah” has traveled to 190 countries, including on HBO Max in the U.S.
The hyper-realistic crime skein is Italy’s greatest TV export, having sold to 190 territories since its 2014 launch, despite being subtitled even for Italian audiences, most of whom don’t understand the Neapolitan dialect in which “Gomorrah” is voiced. The show — best known for mixing neorealism with genre conventions and Shakespearean tropes — is produced by ITV Cattleya in collaboration with Germany’s Beta Film.
Watch the exclusive clip from the 10th anniversary special above.
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